My Experience at RWS Singer/Dancer/Actor Monday's Auditions!

Universal Studios was fishing for talent in conjunction with RWS. The selected few would get a year's performing contract, and the chance to live as a performer, and all that on-the-job free singing, dancing and acting training, and possibly travel the various Universal Studios entertainment resorts! It'd be like the boat I missed with Music and Drama Company during my National Service (CPC bastards didn't want to release me). 

On Monday I responded to the Resorts World Sentosa- Universal Studios casting call. Obviously, as I can only sing and play tennis, I auditioned for a singing role. 

Here are some pictures:

This is me upon arrival at 1015am. The spectacles, you may ask, well, aren't of any degree, but just to give me that added shield from recognition should I embarrass myself (like I eventually did in the dance segment).

Here's the other folks attending the event. My queue number was number 0087! 87's a nice number.. 8+7=15. 1+5=6. 6=Money!

There were older folks too..  This 0094 was another example. Eventually the last registrant was like 120 or something... I think they were really expecting thousands.. But if you add in the actor/impersonator auditioneers in the afternoon, still just about 300 people tops... 

The oldest contestant was some 70+ year old man who was there to sing Hokkien songs. S-l-o-w M-o-t-i-o-n Hokkien songs that is. He was swarmed with the various media reporters. I of course, couldn't be bothered to give him additional picture publicity.

Then there was a troupe of multi-skilled folks who were ex Singapore Armed Forces' Music and Drama Company. There were also some breakdancers and blonde professional dancers. 

It was a rather in-efficiently run audition, as it took over 2 hours to get to my turn. For the earlier parts, there was little movement in the queue, for all of the first hour! I bid my time blogging, trading forex and surfing facebook. 

Then of course some reporter came to interview me as I was so evidently bo-chup about the whole event. I might appear in MyPaper again, this week. Maybe today, tomorrow, or Friday. I don't expect a positive article. LOL! Well, I did already lay out that I wasn't too game for the dance parts which later manifested to be significant in qualification for final selections. At any rate, it's a good preparation for Singapore Idol.

Some other folks were just so freaking trying to hard, and attention seeking. C'mon man, who the hell spends hours warming up vocals? Well this person.. who, did nothing to offend me, other than perhaps pollute my air-space, who cockily replied the registration lady, "I'm a singer-dancer-actress", when asked what she was trying out for.

My first thoughts... Then wouldn't she care more for appearances?- complexion? hair? extra fatty mass? Or did she mean off-season dancer. Well, she did have some trouble getting into a nice split. She was singing the same English Classical stuff Charlotte Church got sick of, over and over again, like no one else was present. Spare me!

Strong vocals, to give fair comment, but even so, just a short 15 minute warmup, or 30 mins tops, good enough! There were many others too who just went on and on repeating their songs. Thankfully, not as loud, but still, I really think singers should preserve themselves for their Golden chance in the audition room. 

So I got through the singing bit easy. I prepared 2 songs, Josh Groban's "You're Still You", and James Morrison's "You Make It Real For Me". I sang the former, as I was told to perform my best song. I took a bit of time fumbling with my Mobile Youtube application on the E71 to find my opening note, and they were getting impatient. But contrary to tales of the judges being hostile and looking no further than the edge of their desks, the judges were all smiles during my performance, and said "Great! We'd like you to stay on for the dance audition up next". 

Surely I could muster an at least passable dance audition? To my benefit, it was a group-scale choreography and not a solo performance. To my disadvantage though, my long break from the dance classes in the gym had degenerated my right foot to a second left one. My dance act was nothing short of preposterous! LOL! And no, they were adamant on having people who could both sing and dance, and they were totally closed to those who could do one thing well at the expense of the other.

The Singer-Dancer-Actress at least was visibly able to learn the routine. Not sure if she eventually got picked though. 

Oh well, so as I told the reporter, the event served as a good lead-up to Singapore Idol. To be told that my singing audition was "great", and to have kapos outside the door praise me on my exit is a confirmation that my efforts since the last Singapore Idol (which I exited Round 3 of auditions) had paid off.

Oh btw, I love Griblit